ABSTRACT
Although the rural and urban areas of Third World countries and the agricultural and industrial sectors of their economies have been examined in their own right in the preceding chapters, they are not independent of each other, but interact as part of a spatially and economically cohesive whole. Incomes from crop production stimulate rural demand for industrial and consumer products, which in turn have an effect on the urban economy by creating jobs and stimulating commerce, while industrial growth in the towns may stimulate the rural sector. Expansion of cotton textile production, for example, will mean not only more jobs in urban areas and increased rural–urban migration, but will stimulate an increase in cotton production by local farmers. Separately, town and country, industry and agriculture, comprise the essential building blocks of the human geography of any country. Together they are linked in the development process through a network of urban regions, arranged hierarchically, both internally and with respect to the international economy. Exchange or interaction between them is integral to the process of development or under-development. In this chapter we consider why and how distinctive patterns of interaction have developed within Third World countries, and with what effect on the movement of goods, services and people.
